Re: Needing Confidence of Support Programs to us through tough times

Karlin - "Thats what having social programs does for a nation"

Bunk! Collectivism at it's finest! Social programs redistribute wealth, plain and simple. If they happen to help a few people in the process, that is nice as far as the government is concerned but otherwise an accident the government did not intend in their agenda to make the fruit of my labor yours.

Thorn "The safety net that capitalism promised to its minions has become a snare of indignaty and admonishment to those who are to the streets because of failure in the system! To give ones life and soul to a company and left hanging in thin air because that company failed or moved offshore has no victims but slaggereds who now have no farmhome in the country to return to because that is now corporate too! Poverty in america is expensive and illegal!"

Could not agree more! Not easy being on either side, damned if you do (not destitute) damned if you don't (are destitute), doesn't make the concept of social welfare valid but it certainly divides and conquers quite a few while it continues to play out.

People don't need force-fed ideas that paint figurative and non-existant entities like "nation" and "society" or "group" in order to genuinely express compassion for individuals in need, even when there are a whole bunch of these individuals someone decides to paint as the fictitious "group", "community", etc. No doubt these comments will be taken by some to paint me as a poor basher and poor monger. Compassionate giving to those in need is something for one person to the next to decide they want to do or not of their own accord, not to be mandated as though it's some legitimate twist of democratic process of government and their social welfare platforms. The government is playing both sides of the same coin, people being used as the coin. It's the same government that grabs the employed person by the ankle and shakes them upside down for all the plunder and taxes that fall out of his pocket, which he the government agent scoops up with the other hand then turns around and benevolently shoves in the face of a potential voting sector who in fact may be poor, destitute, broken, in need of compassion, and these days perhaps illegally emigrated. Meanwhile, the rich and philantropic remain on the sidelines with their tax-free foundation shelters, enjoying the show, and deciding which group of their chosing will be the happy recipient of the next cycle of their billion-dollar-income shell games.